Think tank reviews area's economic successes, shortcomings

Northeastern Pennsylvania has had both success and shortcomings in its efforts to replace manufacturing jobs over the past 30 years.

A report from the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.,-based think tank, "Responding to Manufacturing Job Loss: What Can Economic Development Policy Do?" offers an assessment, or what some would call a critique, of the economic development efforts in six metro areas, including Scranton, from 1980 to 2005.

Here's some of the assessments Brookings made in the study:

- Local economic developers are adept at promoting the region's inherent advantages, but fail to place an emphasis on generating new advantages.

- Work force development efforts are lagging other regions of the state.

- Until recently, the region's economic development groups competed, rather than cooperated.

- Efforts to promote entrepreneurship, while laudable, have had limited success in creating an entrepreneurial culture.

- The region as a whole takes collective risks, but shuns individual risk.

While not challenging Brookings assertions, local economic development professionals say they've made progress.

The think tank lauded the groups' work to end the rivalry among Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton organizations through joint efforts such as regional marketing group Penn's Northeast,but found the step too little, too late.

The study faulted the area for being late to launch a concerted effort to spur entrepreneurship, an effort embodied in the Great Valley Technology Alliance. While that group's work - which includes angel investors, a business plan competition and close work with business incubators and higher education - was applauded, Brookings said the organization, now known as the Northeastern Pennsylvania Technology Institute, hasn't changed the entrepreneurial culture of the area.

The economic development organization, as community-funded nonprofits involved in developing business parks and real estate, suggest that the community as a whole is willing to take collective risks. However, the study notes the lack of entrepreneurship and the limited number of large, locally founded firms.

Philip P. Condron, member of the Greater Scranton Area Chamber of Commerce board of directors and the past interim president, doesn't disagree with Brookings' observations, but points to significant progress made.

"Certainly, we had problems and there is always room for improvement," Mr. Condron said. "But since Brookings looked at NEPA, some key things have changed."

Local economic developers are much better at sharing information and are more collegial, he said. Since 2005, the region has created many startups, including technology companies, he said, pointing to the near-capacity business incubators. There's a new group of angel investors funding new businesses and an effort to promote STEM - Science Technology Engineering and Math - in grade school to get local students on track to higher-wage professions.

Teri Ooms, of the Wilkes-Barre-based Institute of Public Policy and Economic Development, agreed with Brookings' assessment of local economic development groups, saying they focus on business attraction at the expense of business creation, retention and expansion, entrepreneurship and cultivating university research.

"Recruitment is glitzy, it's Hollywood, getting the headline that says '400 new jobs from ABC company,' " said Ms. Ooms, who worked in economic development in California for more than a decade.

While she agreed that Penn's Northeast is valuable, its focus is limited to marketing and has no real authority. She sees a persistent undercurrent of competition between the local groups.

She thinks Brooking's assessment of entrepreneurship may be dated, echoing Mr. Condron's citing of the business incubators.

"Local economic developers are not complacent - they have their hands full with a fast-changing economy, blight, brownfields and a shortage of staff," she said. "Brookings is saying that we are slow to re-invent ourselves."

Efforts to reach officials at the region's other economic development groups, the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business & Industry and Hazleton CAN-DO, were unsuccessful.

Brookings held local economic development groups up as an example, praising their development of office parks to attract jobs, and in Scranton's case, providing downtown amenities as a way of attracting service firms and professionals.

The five pages dedicated to Northeast Pennsylvania's last 30 years read like the area's manufacturing graveyard, starting with the evaporation of the final apparel jobs in the 1980s to mounting manufacturing losses kicked off by the May 2001 closure of Thomson Electronics television picture tube plant which idled 1,100, followed by Corning's announcement it would close a fiberoptic equipment plant.

Economic development organizations did not have a strategy for replacing those jobs, but rather what Brookings called "anything we can get" strategy.

Health care emerged as the largest employment sector and the region became a transportation hub and preferred location for logistics, Brooking noted. The group gave kudos to the local plastics industry and its skilled work force.

Brookings knows Northeast Pennsylvania well, having included the region in several statewide and national studies.

Contact the writer: dfalchek@timesshamrock.com

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